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Aramco, Sinopec inaugurate YASREF refinery, pledge more cooperation

Saudi Arabia’s president King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud and China’s president Xi Jinping have jointly inaugurated the new Yanbu Aramco Sinopec Refining Co. (YASREF) refinery, officials announced today.

The inauguration took place in Riyadh in conjunction with President Jinping's official visit to Saudi Arabia.

The ceremony was also attended by Saudi officials including HRH Mohammad bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, Saudi Deputy Crown Prince and Defense Minister; HE Ali bin Ibrahim Al-Naimi, Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources; and HE Khalid A. Al-Falih, Minister of Health and chairman of the Saudi Aramco board.

Established on January 14, 2012, YASREF is a joint venture between Saudi Aramco, which holds a 62.5% share, and China Petroleum & Chemical Corp. (Sinopec), which holds a 37.5% share. The companies say that YASREF represents their joint focus on driving downstream growth across the entire hydrocarbonchain.

“YASREF is a win-win partnership with Sinopec and a key element of Saudi Aramco's strategy of driving value across the hydrocarbons value-chain to maintain our position as the world’s most reliable energy supplier,” said Amin H. Nasser, president and CEO of Saudi Aramco. “YASREF converts Arabian heavy crude oil into high-value products for international markets. The facility, which embeds world-class technical standards, increases Saudi Aramco’s refining capacity and is an important step in our strategy to become the world’s leading integrated energy enterprise.

“Today's inauguration and cooperation agreement signing reflect shared confidence in our long-term partnership with Sinopec and in the potential opportunities we can create together through deeper, long-term collaboration,” he added.

In conjunction with the inauguration, Saudi Aramco and Sinopec signed a framework agreement for strategic cooperation to enhance the competitiveness of the crude oil supplied by Saudi Aramco to Sinopec and to actively explore cooperation opportunities in key areas including oil and gas services, refining, chemicals, crude oil supply, sales, petroleum services, petrochemical services, technology development and promotion, and new energy.

“The mutually beneficial relationship between China and Saudi Arabia has rapidly strengthened in the last two decades,” said HE Khalid A. Al-Falih, chairman of Saudi Aramco. “China is [Saudi Arabia’s] largest trading partner, and Saudi Aramco is proud to be China’s number one supplier of energy. YASREF, which is a partnership between Sinopec and Saudi Aramco, is part of Saudi Aramco’s strategy to expand and diversify its national and international investment portfolio.”

China is Saudi Arabia’s largest trading partner and the countries’ close cooperation in the energy sector, notably through Sinopec and Saudi Aramco, has greatly benefitted both economies. Sinopec is now Saudi Aramco’s largest crude oil trading partner and onshore drilling service provider. The newly signed agreement will enable the two companies to further enhance their relationship and jointly provide advanced products and services along the hydrocarbon industry chain.

“YASREF will play a significant role in promoting the economic and trade cooperation between China and Saudi Arabia and in enhancing the long-standing friendship between the two countries,” said Dr. Wang Yupu, chairman of Sinopec. “Sinopec possesses world-class refining and chemical technologies, strong engineering and construction capabilities, and developed a set of technologies on aromatics production that is both advanced and cost effective.”

Located in Yanbu Industrial City on the west coast of Saudi Arabia, the world-class YASREF refinery has the capacity to refine 400,000 bpd of Arabian heavy crude and produces over 13.5 million gal/day of ultra-clean transportation fuels and other high-value refined products.

YASREF has state-of-the-art refining facilities such as a distillate hydrocracker and hydrotreaters. It also has capacity to deliver close to 100,000 bpd of clean, high-octane gasoline through a gasoline complex with an advanced continuous catalytic reformer.

On January 15, 2015, YASREF completed its first shipment, sending 300,000 bbl of clean diesel fuel from the YASREF marine terminal. Going forward, YASREF says it will further enhance its refinery and chemical capabilities by leveraging the cooperation between Sinopec and Saudi Aramco.

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Aramco, Sinopec inaugurate YASREF refinery, pledge more cooperation

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